Royal quip was a beauty
IT may have been 40 years ago, but Vanessa Jones remembers clearly the day she experienced the Duke of Edinburgh’s now famous wit.
Vanessa was a student nurse at the time and was asked to help direct dignitaries around UHW during the Royal visit.
She remembered: “When the opening day came, we came up for rehearsal and we were in yellow uniforms, as student nurses at that time. We were christened the daffodils for obvious reasons and had to wear red sashes across our uniforms and white gloves. I’m not sure if it happens anymore, but if royal anyone shook your hand, you had to wear a glove.
“We were positioned in strategic points where the guests were walking along. I was in the front of the hospital when the Duke of Edinburgh came past. We were lined up in our red sashes and in his usual cryptic humour turned to someone and asked if this was a Miss Wales competition.”
Vanessa, who was born in Cardiff but lived in Abergavenny at the time, said the Royal visit was a huge success and she and her fellow student nurses joined other guests for dinner.
“The royal party was in one part of the dining room and we were in another part of the room.
“The whole day went very well. We ushered guests to the Lakeside dining room where they had a massive banquet with everything you could possibly imagine on the menu. Lobster, crab, you name it, it was there.”
Vanessa said there was a real buzz being part of UHW in the early ‘70s.
She said: “For the first year being new on campus, the nursing homes were new, the dental and medical students’ residence was brand new; it was absolutely fabulous, everything brand spanking new.”
Making the switch from a small hospital, where everyone knew each other like at Cardiff Royal Infirmary, to a larger sprawling site like UHW was daunting for many staff, according to Vanessa.
She said: “There were many characters at that time. Down the Infirmary we had a lot of old staff, people that knew you. It was like a big family. Many people were never that happy about coming to such a large hospital and certainly a lot of the portering, catering and housekeeping staff were used to that homely environment of CRI and found it quite difficult.
“That said, I came back to UHW as a clinical teacher, did a lot of work on the wards, got to know the hospital very well, and then my last job was in the research unit and we used to do a lot of work with patients with all sorts of wounds and always felt comfortable because I knew the place very well.”
She says the hospital is full of happy memories and still plays an important role in shaping the medical minds of the future.
“I’ve been involved in teaching since 1981 I think it has remained a good centre for teaching.
“The children areas has developed dramatically and other specialities. So clinically it has always gone from strength to strength.”
